Share

The Medusa Gaze in Contemporary Women’s Fiction

2017-08-21 Literary Criticism
Download The Medusa Gaze in Contemporary Women’s Fiction PDF Online Free

Author :
Release : 2017-08-21
Genre : Literary Criticism
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 740/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK


Book Synopsis The Medusa Gaze in Contemporary Women’s Fiction by : Gillian M. E. Alban

Download or read book The Medusa Gaze in Contemporary Women’s Fiction written by Gillian M. E. Alban. This book was released on 2017-08-21. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Medusa Gaze offers striking insights into the desires and frustrations of women through the narratives of the impressive contemporary novelists Angela Carter, Toni Morrison, Sylvia Plath, Margaret Atwood, A.S. Byatt, Iris Murdoch, Jeanette Winterson, Jean Rhys and Michèle Roberts. It illuminates women’s power and vulnerability as they construct their own egos in opposition to their hostile alter egos or others facing them in their mirrors, and fixes a panoptic gaze on the women stalking its pages, as they learn how to deflect the menacing gaze of others by returning their look defiantly back at them. Some stare back and win assurance; others are stared down, reduced to psychic trauma, madness and even suicide. The book shows how Freud’s, Sartre’s and Lacan’s androcentric views define the Medusa m/other as monstrous, and how the efforts of mothers to nurture may be slighted as inadequate or devouring. It presents Medusa and other goddess figures as inspirational, repelling harm through the ‘evil eye’ of their powerful gaze. Conversely, it also shows women who are condemned as monstrous Gorgons, trapped in enmity, rivalry and rage. Representing English, American and African American, Canadian and Caribbean writing, the works explored here include realistic, social narrative and magical realist writings, in addition to tales of the past and dystopian narratives.

The Medusa Gaze in Contemporary Women's Fiction

2017 Fiction
Download The Medusa Gaze in Contemporary Women's Fiction PDF Online Free

Author :
Release : 2017
Genre : Fiction
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 486/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK


Book Synopsis The Medusa Gaze in Contemporary Women's Fiction by : Gillian M. E. Alban

Download or read book The Medusa Gaze in Contemporary Women's Fiction written by Gillian M. E. Alban. This book was released on 2017. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Medusa Gaze offers striking insights into the desires and frustrations of women through the narratives of the impressive contemporary novelists Angela Carter, Toni Morrison, Sylvia Plath, Margaret Atwood, A.S. Byatt, Iris Murdoch, Jeanette Winterson, Jean Rhys and Mich?¿le Roberts. It illuminates women?ÇÖs power and vulnerability as they construct their own egos in opposition to their hostile alter egos or others facing them in their mirrors, and fixes a panoptic gaze on the women stalking its pages, as they learn how to deflect the menacing gaze of others by returning their look defiantly back at them. Some stare back and win assurance; others are stared down, reduced to psychic trauma, madness and even suicide. The book shows how Freud?ÇÖs, Sartre?ÇÖs and Lacan?ÇÖs androcentric views define the Medusa m/other as monstrous, and how the efforts of mothers to nurture may be slighted as inadequate or devouring. It presents Medusa and other goddess figures as inspirational, repelling harm through the ?Çÿevil eye?ÇÖ of their powerful gaze. Conversely, it also shows women who are condemned as monstrous Gorgons, trapped in enmity, rivalry and rage. Representing English, American and African American, Canadian and Caribbean writing, the works explored here include realistic, social narrative and magical realist writings, in addition to tales of the past and dystopian narratives.

Melusine the Serpent Goddess in A. S. Byatt's Possession and in Mythology

2003 History
Download Melusine the Serpent Goddess in A. S. Byatt's Possession and in Mythology PDF Online Free

Author :
Release : 2003
Genre : History
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 712/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK


Book Synopsis Melusine the Serpent Goddess in A. S. Byatt's Possession and in Mythology by : Gillian M. E. Alban

Download or read book Melusine the Serpent Goddess in A. S. Byatt's Possession and in Mythology written by Gillian M. E. Alban. This book was released on 2003. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gillian Alban meticulously pursues the Fairy Melusine snake-woman image through the plot and the poetry of A. S. Byatt's novel Possession, into medieval legend, and beyond into her antecedents in ancient myth. The book describes the erotically inspiring force of Melusine's love story and draws parallels with goddesses such as Lamia, Ishtar or Inanna, Isis, and Asherah. Mother, creator, and leader, the figure of Melusine was ultimately vilified and tellingly converted into the demon of patriarchal accounts, as seen in the examples of Lilith, Medusa, Scylla, and the serpent in the Garden. Alban deconstructs part of Genesis, including the roles of Adam and Eve and Cain's crime, and illuminates the Old Testament worship of the goddess Asherah alongside the male Yahweh. A forceful exploration of literature, history, and myth, this study sweeps away limiting assumptions about the female sex. Melusine the Serpent Goddess restores the dignity acknowledged to women of old, making a forceful statement about the power and creativity of women.

Wonder Tales in the Fiction of A. S. Byatt

2023-01-19 Literary Criticism
Download Wonder Tales in the Fiction of A. S. Byatt PDF Online Free

Author :
Release : 2023-01-19
Genre : Literary Criticism
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 747/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK


Book Synopsis Wonder Tales in the Fiction of A. S. Byatt by : Alexandra Cheira

Download or read book Wonder Tales in the Fiction of A. S. Byatt written by Alexandra Cheira. This book was released on 2023-01-19. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume provides sustained critical attention on Byatt’s wonder tales, both the stand-alone tales and those which are embedded in the wider frame of a novel or novella. In this light, it examines Byatt’s claim that her wonder tales “are modern literary stories and they do play quite consciously with a postmodern creation and recreation of old forms” through a revisitation of the wonder tale in a productive dialogue with tradition as an expanded recognition of this fertile creative-critical dialogue with regards to the significance of the wonder tale in Byatt’s fictional work. The book evinces a fresh variety of conceptions and approaches to Byatt’s wonder tales, some spanning several tales and others focussing on a specific wonder tale, all thoroughly observant of the nature and workings of the relationship between story or novel and genre or tale, and theoretically informed by innovative critical approaches.

Women and Other Monsters

2021-03-09 Social Science
Download Women and Other Monsters PDF Online Free

Author :
Release : 2021-03-09
Genre : Social Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 933/5 ( reviews)

GET EBOOK


Book Synopsis Women and Other Monsters by : Jess Zimmerman

Download or read book Women and Other Monsters written by Jess Zimmerman. This book was released on 2021-03-09. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fresh cultural analysis of female monsters from Greek mythology, and an invitation for all women to reclaim these stories as inspiration for a more wild, more “monstrous” version of feminism The folklore that has shaped our dominant culture teems with frightening female creatures. In our language, in our stories (many written by men), we underline the idea that women who step out of bounds—who are angry or greedy or ambitious, who are overtly sexual or not sexy enough—aren’t just outside the norm. They’re unnatural. Monstrous. But maybe, the traits we’ve been told make us dangerous and undesirable are actually our greatest strengths. Through fresh analysis of 11 female monsters, including Medusa, the Harpies, the Furies, and the Sphinx, Jess Zimmerman takes us on an illuminating feminist journey through mythology. She guides women (and others) to reexamine their relationships with traits like hunger, anger, ugliness, and ambition, teaching readers to embrace a new image of the female hero: one that looks a lot like a monster, with the agency and power to match. Often, women try to avoid the feeling of monstrousness, of being grotesquely alien, by tamping down those qualities that we’re told fall outside the bounds of natural femininity. But monsters also get to do what other female characters—damsels, love interests, and even most heroines—do not. Monsters get to be complete, unrestrained, and larger than life. Today, women are becoming increasingly aware of the ways rules and socially constructed expectations have diminished us. After seeing where compliance gets us—harassed, shut out, and ruled by predators—women have never been more ready to become repellent, fearsome, and ravenous.

You may also like...